


Family

by Bloody_Destination



Series: Dark Ace Series of Connected Drabbles [11]
Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Dark Ace's Guilt Complex, Family Bonding, Gen, Pre-Femslash, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-10 11:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19905064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloody_Destination/pseuds/Bloody_Destination
Summary: It is the end of a war and the beginning of a new start.





	Family

The worst part about losing in the end is how Lark clings to him, crying on his shoulder and knowing he’s failed as her protector. He swore once and then a dozen times over that he would always be her shield and sword. He’s failed as both. He shouldn’t have let it get this far. She’s only fourteen and already suffered great loss.

Ace had hoped to spare her the pain he went through at her age, but he’s failed that too. She looks broken, covered in soot and surrounded by a broken carrier. But she’s so strong. She chose a path Ace was too weak to make when he was given it ten years ago, almost to the day.

She chose her family, turning her back on her birthright. When that Crystal Mage from the Storm Hawks offered his baby sister her hand, she took it and together Atmos’ two strongest Crystal Mages in history brought down an entire fleet of Cyclonian War Cruisers. It was a sight to behold but it left his poor sister in shambles, torn from a life she had been bred into, molded for and Ace would be damned if he abandoned his family again.

He tries to shush her, even as her sobs grow louder. She calls out for her grandmother, her father and then finally her big brother and then keeps calling to him and Ace responds every time.

There is coughing in the distance, and shouting, and the copper skinned girl, his baby sister’s first real friend appears behind deformed metal.

“Lark! Thank goodness.” The girl runs to their side and Lark switches her hold from Ace to the older girl, “Lark, it’s okay. It’s all over.”

Ace sits there, exhausted, his leg severely burnt and a sprained wrist from shielding Lark when the ship went down. He knows she’ll be happy though and that’s all that matters. That is all that has ever mattered. The girl, Piper, pulls Lark to her feet, wiping away tears and then pulling her away from the wreckage.

Ace wants more than anything to follow, but he knows he’s no longer needed. He was a tool for an Empress who died with the fall of Cyclonia. No matter his part in ending the evil reign of the Cyclonian Forces, he’s done far too much harm in their name to getting him more than a lifetime in prison. He’s the Dark Ace after all, a willing participant in the slaughter of innocent lives.

But Lark, dear sweet Lark, won’t let him go as she stops the taller girl from pulling her further and looks back at Ace, still sitting on the ground, both unable and unwilling to get up. He knows, just by the look in her eyes that she won’t leave him. But she should. When she wants to, she can actually look like a normal teenager, when she looks like Lark instead of Master Cyclonis, she could pass as a normal child. Hidden in plain sight. Ace, on the other hand, is known across every Terra in the Free Atmos.

“Ace.” Her voice sounds broken and Piper follows Lark back to where he sits, “You have to get up.”

He only shakes his head, “No, Lark.”

She’s crying again, or rather, she hasn’t stopped crying but her body shudders with unsuppressed sobs, “You have to. You promised.”

“You should go with the Storm Hawks. They’ll protect you. I’d only get you hurt, and I promised I’d always protect you.”

“I don’t care. Please don’t leave me, Ace.” She begs, and he can’t give in. He needs her to be free. If only he were more like Lightning, he’d know what to say, know what to do, “I don’t want a protector anymore. I don’t want a shield and a sword or a bodyguard. I just want my big brother. Why can’t you be my big brother for once?”

“I’m a terrible big brother, Lark. You should have realized this by now.”

There is suddenly a loud clap followed by a stinging against his cheek and Lark is holding her hand in pain, “How can you say that?!” Then quieter, “After everything you’ve done for me, how can you possibly say that?”

Then he feels a hand lifting his own and placing his arm onto a narrow shoulder and he looks over and his vision is full of red, “What do you think you’re doing, Sky Knight?”

Emerald eyes flash with exhausted playfulness, “What does it look like I’m doing? You kinda saved our lives back there, so I owe you one. But just one.”

The boy laughs with a wink and hoists him up. He’s hasn’t been this close to Aerrow since the boy was four and he’s ashamed of himself for leaning in closer even as he struggles to get out of the hold. The other Storm Hawks all pop into vision, looking through the wreckage as they go for survivors. It seems everyone on board the War Cruisers had ample enough time to escape.

He’s helped onto the Condor with no protest from any of the Storm Hawks, the larger of the group even going so far as to look at the burn on his leg and wrap the sprained wrist. He recognizes the first aid kit immediately. It had belonged to himself, a long time ago. It was tucked in his room just underneath the bed for easy access, but out of the way to make room for the ever-growing collection of stuff he insisted on piling in his room.

He keeps his mouth shut on the subject, but he notes some of his old bottles filled with ointment he recognizes. Some he’d invented himself, leaving a list of ingredients in the kit and it seems they’ve been refilled by the Storm Hawk in front of him and it makes him inexplicably proud.

“We’ll have to find a place for you both to hide out until the panic finally dies down.” Aerrow is saying, “While you guys may have been the ones to take down all those ships, you’re still the most wanted in Atmos. But they all saw what you did and that may go a long way in the eyes of the council and the other Sky Knights.”

“It doesn’t matter what happens to me.” Ace says before the teenager can go on, “Lark is a child. They may not even recognize her. Turning me in may just be what keeps them from searching for her, especially if I claim she died in the crash.”

“You!” Lark screams, only stopped in her approach by Piper holding her back, “They’ll put you to death, a life in prison. They’ll treat you horribly. I won’t let you do something so stupid. You arrogant, good for nothing stupid-,”

“Lark.” Piper whispers in her ear and it calms her down almost immediately and Ace wonders about it, especially when the older girl pulls Lark against her, rubbing at her arms, “None of us are going to turn either of you in.”

Ace snorts, and he can’t help it because cruelty has been his only safety net for the past ten years, “Don’t make me laugh. I’ve killed and tortured and destroyed my way through conquering the Free Atmos, and in some cases I have done all three of those to at least one of you.”

He pointedly looks at Aerrow. He tries to hide his grief, his anger, but he’s still so young. Ace could have turned out like Aerrow, he thinks, with how similar their upbringing had been. A near absentee father, a mother who wasn’t all there and then suddenly losing everything so young. Yes, they could have been the same, but they chose two very different paths. Ace will use whatever he has to push them past the breaking point to get what he wants.

“Can’t you just accept that we want to help you?” Aerrow asks him, “Even if you did turn yourself over to the council for judgment, we’d all fight tooth and nail to see you free. Do you think Lark wouldn’t hesitate to follow after you? She’s the Master Cyclonis. She’d get an even harsher sentence then you.”

“He’s right, man.” The blonde one, Finn, says, “Face it. You’re stuck with us, dude.”

“You did kinda save all of us back there.” The one that patch him up pipes in, Junko, “If it wasn’t for you, we would’a still been fighting, lost who knows how many people. Not to mention you took down those ships, called a full retreat and got everyone out of the way in time.”

Piper goes so far as to move away from Lark, resting a hand on his shoulder, “You protected Lark, even at the cost of your own life and I owe you for that. It was my fault after all that she nearly died.”

“I don’t understand.” Ace finally forces out, sounded more lost than he has in a long time, “Why are you doing this for us…for me, of all people. After everything I’ve done.”

He actually understands it when the group of teens all share a look. He’s seen this countless time before, shared in nearly as much. He feels like he knows what they are going to say, even before Aerrow opens his mouth.

“You should know better than anyone, Ace.” The boy says his name, his true name. Over the last year, he has only ever heard the teen call him Dark Ace, never just Ace and the familiar ring to it has Ace’s heart clenching, “Once a Storm Hawk, always a Storm Hawk.”

It’s Piper, whose hand tightens ever so slightly on his shoulder, “Lark, she…” The older girl shares a look with his baby sister, then looks back at Ace, “She told me why you…why you did what you did all those years ago. While the reasoning doesn’t excuse your actions, we understand. I don’t think there is anything I wouldn’t do for my family.”

When the word ‘family’ falls from her lips, she smiles at each and every one of the people around her.

Aerrow takes his other shoulder, “We want to give you a second chance, but you have to be willing, Ace. We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Lark growls at him, “But just know that wherever you go, I go.”

Ace sighs, “You’re really giving me no choice, are you?” He can’t help ruining the mood, “I don’t deserve forgiveness.”

“Maybe so, but it isn’t your choice who we decide to forgive.”

It’s such backwards logic, the type Lightning would use when he knew he was losing a fight against either himself or Mimi.

“You sound just like your father.” Ace mumbles and knows that he’s already lost, knows from countless similar arguments from a similar man that there isn’t any point in arguing further.

Surprisingly, this wrangles a gentle smile from Aerrow, “He sounds like a smart man. I think…I would like to hear more about him?”

He even makes statements sound like a question in a very similar manner to his father and Ace nods.

“But first.” Piper says, returning to Lark’s side and taking her hand, “They should rest. Then we need to figure out where to stash the both of you.”

Aerrow has a look in his eyes, a look that spells trouble, one that looks more like his mother than anything, “I know a great goat farm.”

Ace really can’t help it. He laughs, and he can’t breathe by the end of it and Aerrow smiles at him and he’s been wanting to see that smile for years. A smile he remembers every time he came home from months of being gone. Wide green eyes peeking out under a fringe of red hair and that smile that was solely reserved for Ace, and Ace alone.

After ten long years, Ace is finally home.


End file.
